Face to Face vs. Screen to Screen: Re-Envisioning Online Continuing Professional Development for Interpreters

Abstract

If interpreting and interpreting education are to reach new heights, as the conference theme encourages us to do, we need to thoroughly examine the underlying beliefs that have shaped Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in its current form in the US. This panel, composed of experienced interpreters, educators, and online facilitators, analyzes the approaches to and rhetoric surrounding, current CPD practices. Current rhetoric often frames online learning as inherently passive, less effective and non-interactive, while characterizing face-to-face activities as superior, seemingly equating physical presence with “learning.” This mindset values physical presence over intellectual engagement. Shifting the prevailing paradigm of CPD in general requires identifying effective approaches for online CPD. Doing this will inform approaches to not only CPD, but even more importantly, begin to establish best practices to enable educators to instill these values in students of interpreting from their first exposure to our profession.